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The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivations of social entrepreneurs. It explores the case of the Gathering in Ireland in 2013, when against a backdrop of recession, the national Government encouraged individuals and communities to organize events and invite the Diaspora to visit Ireland as a way of helping the country to revitalize. Some 5,000 events took place across the country during the year, and this paper examines this in the context of social entrepreneurship. Three research questions are posed: Who were these tourism and social entrepreneurs who organized events as a result of the Gathering? What motivated them to engage in these activities? Will this social entrepreneurship activity be maintained beyond 2013 and how has it been impacted by the Gathering?

The empirical research was conducted in two counties in Ireland, Co. Kerry and Co. Westmeath. The research tools used were key informant interviews, a survey of event organizers and focus groups.

Key findings show that the Gathering has resulted in the emergence of new social entrepreneurs, but it has also had a positive impact on those who had run their events before, as it made them be more strategic in the way they planned and ran their event and also resulted in them thinking about these events in terms of tourists rather than just the local community. They also developed new skills which will aid their future development. It is clear that social entrepreneurs can play a fundamental role in the development of tourism destinations, and this is an important topic for researchers in tourism to be concerned about.

The originality of this paper lies in the fact that it addresses the issue of motivation of social entrepreneurs and challenges us to think more about how these types of entrepreneurs identify the problem that they will address. Furthermore, this case shows that the motivation for such action can be prompted by a national strategy, rather than as the literature heretofore represented it as an innate motivation that materialized and developed within particular individuals.

This study aims to construct an integrated social entrepreneur system in the rural area of Hengshan, Taiwan, that could benefit four stakeholders, namely, tourists, business, community and government. Two social entrepreneur cases demonstrate a mutually beneficial situation of lowering the structural unemployment rate, returning young human capital to villages and innovating rural tourism through the activism of service science.

Qualitative approach was applied to data obtained from 12 research projects spanning three years. Service experience engineering (SEE) methods were used to conduct a service design for social entrepreneurs in an integrated service system. The service system aimed to innovate rural tourism through the activism of service science.

SEE methods explain a series of service design processes that helped our research team start up two social entrepreneur projects as service prototypes to offer service innovation based on cultural creativity to innovate rural tourism. These two social entrepreneurs in rural tourism offer job opportunities to young people and senior citizens alike. In addition, an integrated service system of interdisciplinary knowledge, multi-stakeholders and local resources fulfills various requirements of stakeholders to promote sustainable rural tourism.

Real action studies are limited in the research on social entrepreneurs. This case study provides research insights into service science and calls for action in practice to change the future of a local village. The results provide the philosophy and knowledge of service science that social entrepreneurs of rural tourism can use in the village. Designing service innovation for rural tourism has shaped its vision toward a sustainable tourism system.

Few studies have shown that social entrepreneurs could innovate rural tourism. The present study presents an action case through the activism of service science.

This paper aims to utilize a framework from classic sociology – Max Weber’s Typology of Rationality – to understand the motivations for social entrepreneurship in responsible tourism in India. The critical role of the social entrepreneur in effecting the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship has been largely under-recognized. The authors seek to explore, develop and enhance Weber’s theoretical arguments in the context of the tourism industry.

The authors used a constructivism paradigm and Seidman’s (2006) Three Interview Series technique to obtain the narratives of two social entrepreneurs in India. Data were analyzed using a hybrid thematic coding procedure.

Findings indicate that there exists a dynamic interplay between the formal and substantive rationalities that underlie the behavior of social entrepreneurs. The authors also discuss how entrepreneurs draw upon their formal and substantive repertoires to create their identities through the simultaneous processes of apposition (“Me”) and opposition (“Not Me”).

The findings provide an important recognition of the impact of formal and substantive rationalities on the conceptualization, implementation and manifestation of social enterprise for a variety of stakeholders.

This paper makes a significant contribution to understanding the why and the how of social entrepreneurship in responsible tourism. It provides a framework that can be widely applied to develop and enhance Weberian theory and further the understanding of the fundamental nature of human behavioral phenomena in tourism and beyond.

Although the generation of social value is the focus of social entrepreneurship, little research attention is paid on how social value and transformation can be created. By adopting a market approach, this study aims to develop a framework showing how social enterprises in tourism/hospitality can generate social value and transformation.

A thorough literature review revealed that a market approach is an appropriate lens for understanding social entrepreneurship. Consequently, a framework based on “learning with the market” is proposed as a useful tool for identifying, managing and also creating (new) opportunities for social ventures. The justification and the theoretical underpinnings of the market-based framework are further supported by discussing various other theories and concepts.

The framework identifies three capabilities that social entrepreneurs need to develop for generating social value and transformation: network structure, market practices and market pictures. Several examples from tourism and hospitality social enterprises are analyzed for showing the applicability and usefulness of the framework.

The paper proposes a conceptual framework as well as several research directions for further testing, refining and expanding it.

By applying the framework on several tourism and hospitality social enterprises, the paper provides practical implications about the capabilities that social enterprises should develop for engaging with other market actors to identify and exploit (new) market opportunities for social value co-creation, and influence market plasticity for forming new markets and driving social change.

The suggested framework identifies the capabilities and the ways in which (tourism/hospitality) social enterprises can engage with and form markets for co-creating social value and escalating their social impacts through social transformation.

The paper provides a new marketing approach (that overcomes the limitations of traditional economic theories) for understanding how social enterprises can shape, manage and engage with social markets for generating social value.

The overarching aim of this project is to understand the role women tourism social entrepreneurs (TSEs) play in contributing to regenerative practices in Canada.

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with women food TSEs with snowball sampling. This paper challenges the assumption that the masculine experience is the human experience. Accordingly, this research is informed by a feminist ethic of care lens to recognise the important role of Canadian women TSEs. Methodologically, the authors employed the strategies of a constructivist grounded theory to guide the analysis (Charmaz, 2011). This process involved carefully engaging in a close line by line reading of the transcripts, developing codes based on the authors’ dealings with the data including summarising, synthesising and sorting the data (Charmaz, 2011).

The analysis revealed three categories: (1) Adopting a regenerative mindset and enhancing well-being, (2) Supporting the consumption of real food and (3) Educating communities for regenerative and just futures. The analysis revealed the importance of women TSEs in adopting a regenerative and caring mindset to enhance the well-being of their communities and beyond.

The study focusses on the learnings from 11 entrepreneurs from Canada. There is a scope to expand the discussion with more interviews. The impact of this pandemic on the small businesses resulted in affecting the researchers’ participation by presenting some unique challenges in participant recruitment. Maybe the studies in the near future will focus on grounding the research papers based on other sexual orientations and indigenous social entrepreneurs.

The authors hope future studies centre diversity and attend to the role of women in their communities to better under the diverse contributions. The work presented here is part of a broader study on the role and impact of women TSEs and so only reveals the tip of the Canadian iceberg. Forthcoming studies will attend to some of the gender-specific barriers faced by women TSEs and the supports required particularly in the wake of COVID-19. The authors hope other scholars continue to build on this work, adopting feminist approaches to enhance our understanding of the role women play in contributing to just, caring and regenerative futures.

Contributing to Higgins-Desbiolles and Monga's (2021) in-depth case study using an ethic of care to examine an Australian events business supporting homeless individuals, the analysis of the 11 in-depth interviews with Canadian TSE provides evidence of alternative ways women are delivering social value. Using an ethic of care lens has elicited the impacts created by the informants and the ripple effects particularly in light of regenerative practices which are crucial in the tourism sector as borders and destinations reopen to tourism as noted by Ateljevic (2020).

There are few studies in the tourism social entrepreneurship literature that recognise the agency and centres the vocies of women. Kimbu and Ngoasong (2016) made a call for more research to understand how women engage in social entrepreneurial activities and benefit their local communities. There are limited analyses on regenerative tourism in practice in the scholarly literature. To respond to this gap the authors examine the regenerative practices of women TSEs in Canada.

This study aims to integrate social embeddedness with learning society philosophy to explore how grassroots associations of Indigenous women tourism entrepreneurs can leverage their social network to co-create value.

A critical feminist perspective considers the intersectional experiences of Indigenous women tourism entrepreneurs from the rural Manasalu region of Nepal. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews with local tourism stakeholders were carried out. Hermeneutics in tandem with Indigenous methods of analysis ensured consideration of Indigenous ontologies and social locations beyond being merely theoretically driven.

A paradox of Indigenous women’s empowerment emerged where several efforts for empowerment presented themselves as a double-edged sword. Individuals’ social capital and social support for the sustenance and stability of grassroots associations ensure collective and continuous learning through a value-creation framework.

Collective self-reflection and self-determination for knowledge creation and sharing amongst social ties shed new light on the role of an Indigenous standpoint on value creation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that captures how the intersectionality of Indigenous women entrepreneurs in grassroots associations use their social capital through contesting, leveraging and learning to transform their social network into a value network.

As an important emerging topic in recent years, reviews on tourism and hospitality social entrepreneurship (THSE) by theme remain limited. This paper aims to map the current publication trends, reveal the formation path and identify the future research directions of THSE, providing comprehensive and in-depth insight.

This study presents a systematic review of 89 articles on THSE published in the Web of Science, ScienceDirect and EBSCOhost. It follows grounded theory to classify literature and an expert feedback process to ensure validity.

Research on THSE is mainly found in developing countries and regions. Qualitative methods have been the most popular for researchers. This paper classifies THSE research into four main themes: antecedents, processes, effects and challenges.

This review suggests that social enterprise managers should consider the inclusive business model and adopt empowerment, network construction, market approaches and bricolage to mobilize resources. Policymakers should disseminate relevant laws and regulations to provide a flexible and equal environment. Education and capacity building for people should be strengthened to train future social entrepreneurs.

This review provides an integrated process model by clustering articles to update the holistic picture of THSE. This work identifies research gaps that future research should address.

This study aims to examine the development of a social enterprise in China’s tourism industry by analyzing the coevolution of the social entrepreneur and the social system.

Purposeful sampling was used to select 1kg.org as a single-case study. Semistructured in-depth interviews of three informants were conducted to obtain organization-specific insights. Interview data were analyzed following structuration theory. Secondary data and interviews of other social entrepreneurs and experts were used to support the findings. Research findings were validated using triangulation and member-checking methods.

Because of the institutional environment, most nonprofit organizations in China do not have resource independence and clear legal identity. Meanwhile, social enterprise has emerged as a new organizational form with the objective of creating social value through profitable business operations.

Social enterprise is still in its infancy in China, particularly in the tourism field. This study reveals an innovative and sustainable model for nonprofit organizations in China facing institutional challenges and competitive funding environments. It provides recommendations to policymakers for improving mechanisms to increase social services through social enterprises.

This study proposes a new conceptual framework for studying social entrepreneurship by adapting structuration theory to address contemporary social and business issues.

The major purpose of this research article is to empirically analyze a moderated-mediated model to comprehend the interrelationships between religiosity, life hardship, attitude toward social entrepreneurship (SE) and corporate social entrepreneurial orientation (SEO).

The constructivist grounded theory method was used to analyze interviews, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was selected to analyze the developed nine hypotheses.

Based on the structural model outcomes, the practicing religious believers reported a significantly higher level of corporate SEO and propensity for social proactiveness, innovativeness, risk-taking, socialness and persistence (dimensions of SEO) than the nonpracticing believers.

This study provides the practical implication that social entrepreneurs with a higher degree of congruence with the prevailing religious institutionalized logic in a society have a higher inclination to create social value through corporate practices and operations.

This study presents an SEO scale that incorporates the dimensions of two SEO scales developed by Kraus et al. (2017) and Syrjä et al. (2019). To the best of the author’s knowledge, the applicability and generalizability of this scale were supported for the first time in the SE discipline, particularly tourism SE. This scale effectively captures more characteristics of SE, particularly in the face of inefficient political and institutional forms.

The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the additional motives, aside from the social interests that motivate social entrepreneurs. This paper does so by using an inductive approach and specifically carrying out a re-examination of two pieces of research examining social entrepreneurship that were carried out independently by the two researchers in South Africa and Ireland.

The method used for the paper is content analysis. Research using qualitative content analysis focuses on the characteristics of language, talk and conversation (Sarantakos, 2005) with attention paid to the content or contextual meaning of the text. Thus, a qualitative content analysis is concerned with an examination of the uses of language. According to Downe-Wambolt (1992, p. 314), the aim of content analysis is “to provide knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon under study”.

The findings indicate that the informants do have additional motivations with respect to their business ventures including lifestyle motives, receiving acknowledgement and generating profit.

Few published papers investigate the motives of social entrepreneurs and explore if there are indeed any additional motivations aside from community interests. The results in this study identify that indeed social entrepreneurs are motivated by an array of motivations. The motivations we discovered in our research illustrate an individual who is mutually concerned with their communities, the environments in which they live in, lifestyle interests, acknowledgement and profit which may suggest that such community contributions could be sustained over time.